Trude Alison M, Duff Melissa C, Brown-Schmidt Sarah
Department of Psychology and Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Cortex. 2014 May;54:117-23. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.01.015. Epub 2014 Feb 3.
A hallmark of human speech perception is the ability to comprehend speech quickly and effortlessly despite enormous variability across talkers. However, current theories of speech perception do not make specific claims about the memory mechanisms involved in this process. To examine whether declarative memory is necessary for talker-specific learning, we tested the ability of amnesic patients with severe declarative memory deficits to learn and distinguish the accents of two unfamiliar talkers by monitoring their eye-gaze as they followed spoken instructions. Analyses of the time-course of eye fixations showed that amnesic patients rapidly learned to distinguish these accents and tailored perceptual processes to the voice of each talker. These results demonstrate that declarative memory is not necessary for this ability and points to the involvement of non-declarative memory mechanisms. These results are consistent with findings that other social and accommodative behaviors are preserved in amnesia and contribute to our understanding of the interactions of multiple memory systems in the use and understanding of spoken language.
人类言语感知的一个标志是，尽管不同说话者之间存在巨大差异，但仍能快速且轻松地理解言语。然而，当前的言语感知理论并未对这一过程中涉及的记忆机制做出具体论断。为了检验陈述性记忆对于特定说话者学习是否必要，我们通过监测失忆症患者在遵循口头指令时的目光注视，测试了患有严重陈述性记忆缺陷的失忆症患者学习和区分两个不熟悉说话者口音的能力。对眼睛注视时间进程的分析表明，失忆症患者能够迅速学会区分这些口音，并根据每个说话者的声音调整感知过程。这些结果表明，这种能力并不需要陈述性记忆，并指出非陈述性记忆机制的参与。这些结果与其他社会和适应性行为在失忆症中得以保留的研究结果一致，有助于我们理解多个记忆系统在口语使用和理解中的相互作用。
